Steven Pinker Quotes

When we choose for ourselves, we also choose for others.

No code of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori in the face of the cruel mathematics that command our condition.

That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral.

It is impossible to be just if one is not generous.

A moral choice in its basic terms appears to be a choice that favors survival: a choice made in favor of life.

In the moral sphere, every act of justice or charity involves putting ourselves in the other person's place and thus transcending our own competitive particularity.

Whatever good you would do out of fear of punishment, or hope of reward hereafter, the Atheist would do simply because it is good; and being so, he would receive the far surer and more certain reward, springing from well-doing, which would constitute his pleasure, and promote his happiness.

In a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is make things as right as we can.

I'm not a believer in predetermined fates, being rewarded for one's efforts. I'm not a believer in karma. The reason why I try to be a good person is because I think it's the right thing to do. If I commit fewer bad acts there will be fewer bad acts, maybe other people will join in committing fewer bad acts, and in time there will be fewer and fewer of them.

The Christian doctrine is one that is both about individual spirituality and a parallel commitment to social justice.

It is not the business of the law to make anyone good or reverent or moral or clean or upright.

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.

But what does it mean to be on God's side? I believe it starts with focusing on the common good - not just in politics, but in all the decisions we make in our personal, family, vocational, financial, communal, and, public lives. That old but always new ethic simply says we must care for more than just ourselves or our own group. We must care for our neighbor as well, and for the health of the life we share with one another. It echoes a very basic tenet of Christianity and other faiths - love your neighbor as yourself - still the most transformational ethic in history.

What is the good life? What is the good man? The good woman? What is the good society and what is my relation to it? What are my obligations to society? What is best for my children? What is justice? Truth? Virtue? What is my relation to nature, to death, to aging, to pain, to illness? How can I live a zestful, enjoyable, meaningful life? What is my responsibility to my brothers? Who are my brothers? What shall I be loyal to? What must I be ready to die for?

Good and evil exist only in terms of the happiness or suffering they create in ourselves and others

Justice-august and pure, the abstract idea of all that would be perfect in the spirits and the inspirations of men!-where the mind rises; where the heart expands; where the countenance is ever placid and benign; where her favorite attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate; to hear their cry and to help them; to rescue and relieve; to succor and save; majestic, from its mercy; venerable, from its Lutility; uplifted, without pride; firm without obduracy; beneficent in each preference; lovely, though in her frown!

A person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith than by faith without morality.

We talk so much about one's rights... so little about what is actually right.

It behooves every man to see that his influence is on the side of justice, and let the courts make their own characters.

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.

While we may not live to see the full realization of our ambition, we will have the satisfaction of knowing that the world we leave to our children will be better off for what we did.

It is better to suffer injustice than to do it.

She thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.

One must care about a world one will not see.